Transient Hydrothermal Analysis of Small Lakes

The element method is used to predict the transient, horizontal temperature distribution resulting from the discharge of a heated effluent into a body of water. The methods of heat transfer which are considered include the heat exchange at the air water interface, advection, and diffusion. The two-dimensional, transient solution to the governing field equation is approximated by applying the Galerkin comparison of the numerical solution with the exact solution for a one-dimensional example is also applied to a cooling pond and the results are compared with the measured field data which were taken over a period of 4 days. The method is particularly well suited for evaluating the performance of cooling ponds for purposes of design; however, the method is general and may be applied to rivers and lakes.